Plamya

Belarusian land is interesting because every town, every village and even a small village has a long and rich history.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

The history of the village dates back to long 1551. Then it was called Old Bjelica but it became Flame when the Bolsheviks have arrived after the revolution of 1917.

At various times, the Bejelica estate belonged to Zenkovich Sapieha, Nowacki. The last owners of the land were nobles Svyatskih. The estate reached its peak and became a major industrial center of the region under the head of Svyatskih. There were a distillery, a mill, a farm where breeding animals were grown.

At the beginning of the XIX century Jozef Svyatskiy built a large manor house in the style of late classicism with a park and outbuildings. Svyatskiy was not rich, and there is a belief that the manor complex in the Old Bielica was paid by the money from Napoleon's treasure, which was found by landowner Svyatskiy at the bottom of the local lake.

At the end of XIX - early XX century the estate of "Old Bjelica" was rebuilt by the order of the famous cultural figure of that time Charles Svyatskiy. In 1911, the main decoration of Svyatskiy’s palace was the octagonal tower. It's hard to believe, but the tower had an economic purpose. On the first floor there located a laundry room and a bathroom, while the second floor was occupied by wood workshop of young landowner Stanislaw Svyatskiy. The project of the tower was made by polish architect Vladislav Mechkovskiy

Svyatskiy’s estate thrived until the revolution of 1917. In 1918, Karol Svyatskiy with his wife and son Stanislaw hastily evacuated their wealth to Poland. During the Second World War the estate house was occupied by German barracks, so the building was perfectly preserved. In the postwar years the building was used as a school, a cultural center and a library.

The building operated until 1988, before it became the historical and cultural value. The fact is that from 1903 to 1904 in Svyatskiy’s estate there lived and worked Ivan Dominikovich Lutsevich, better known as Yanka Kupala. There is still a memorial board with the name of the great classic of Belarus in the local village council.

It was decided to reconstruct the estate and even the money has been allocated. The workers arrived, tore down the roof and left. At the same time financing and restoration have both finished.

Finally, historical and cultural value was «finished off» by the locals. They literally dismantled the house brick by brick. By the way, if you want to collect the bricks it would be quite simple: every brick, which was in the construction of the estate, was decorated with the monogram K.S (Karl Svyatskiy).

Today the ruins of the house are overgrown with saplings, and, it seems, nobody cares. The tower is better preserved. They say that while the foundation stands, the house is alive and it can still be saved. We can only hope that people's attitude to this outstanding monument of architecture will change, and Svyatskiy’s estate will finally acquire its original shape.